Page 72 of Amber Gambler

“We paid her take for tonight so she could visit you.”

“How did you find her?” Farah blurred in her panic. “Who told you about her?”

“I spoke to Maggy.” I hadn’t wanted to break it to her like that, but I had to calm her. “She told me.”

“Of course she did.” Farah fell still in the way only the dead or undead can manage. “You spoke to her.”

“Yes.” I heard what she wanted to know. “She’s dead.”

“God.” She plopped down in the grass. “How?”

“She drowned,” Kierce told her. “The same as, we assume, you.”

The second she saw him—really saw him—she scrambled backwards on her palms to escape.

“Whatareyou?” Fear caused her form to shiver. “Are you Death?”

A spirit had described him as radiating black light around his head, almost like a halo. She must see it too. I wished I could, but I was starting to believe only the dead could perceive that aspect of his nature.

“I’m his personal assistant.” Kierce kept a straight face. “I won’t harm you.”

“You two are…?” Her gaze ping-ponged between us. “You’retogether?”

“Yes.” He dug his fingertips into my skin. “We are together.”

Blame it on the way he held me, like he didn’t want to let go, but in that moment, he struck me as realer than he had been before admitting he wanted to kiss me. Sentimental? Possibly. But I didn’t think it was the hormones talking. Notjustthe hormones anyway.

The more time he spent among the living, the deeper he sank into his own skin.

The more he experienced, the more alive he became, and the more sensation he craved.

Drawing her knees to her chest, Farah sighed. “Maggy told you where to find the others then.”

“We spoke to Ian.” I hated how fear unraveled her edges. “Audrey isn’t there anymore.”

“He would never out her to the cops.” Farah snorted. “She’s too valuable for him to lose.”

“I believe him.” I wished I didn’t have to share this part. “He asked if I had talked to her too.”

“Talk as in…” she gestured between us, “…talk?”

“Yes.”

A sob blasted from her chest like a gunshot, confirming Maggy had been wrong about their friendship.

“Shhh.” I focused on Farah until she solidified enough for me to embrace her. “This doesn’t mean it’s too late for her. Between your death and Maggy’s, she might have gotten spooked and ran. Do you have any idea where she would go? Does she have anyone else she might turn to for help?”

“The Houwaards.” She sagged in my arms. “Only as a last resort.”

“The couple who wanted to adopt her.”

After I gave Harrow their information, he called them to demand an explanation for the lack of a missing persons report. They claimed not to have seen or heard from Audrey since she left their house without a word. They were hiding something, maybe that they kept cashing the checks to care for a child no longer in their home, but he didn’t think it was the girl herself.

“Yeah.” She sniffled into my shirt then pulled herself together. “They saw her do somethingunnatural.”

“That’s why she left?” I released her, wishing I had more to offer. “She worried they wouldn’t want her?”

“Oh, no.” Farah rubbed her arms. “They still want her.” She shuddered. “Dan is a pastor. Herafflictionexcited him. He was convinced it was proof of demonic possession or Satan working his evil through girls or some other nonsense. Holly wanted to adopt Audrey all along, but Dan wasn’t sold on the idea until it occurred to him that, if the devil was working through her, then she was also proof God existed. From an argument I overheard, a day or two before Audrey came home with me, Dan wanted her to allow him to exorcise her demon at his church. In front of his parishioners. During a livestream.”

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